1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste disposal assembly to be utilized for the simultaneous and efficient disposal of a plurality of fluid filtration devices in a manner which is quick, convenient, cost effective and in conformity with environmental disposal requirements such as those associated with oil filter disposal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fluid filtration devices, and in particular oil filters are very difficult and often very expensive to properly dispose of due to the numerous environmental requirements associated with disposal of the fluid, such as oil and the contaminated filtration assembly. In particular, oil filters must be drained of a substantial quantity of the oil contained therein, and must be delivered to appropriate disposal facilities substantially separate from one another. As such, conventional compacting garbage trucks cannot be utilized for the disposal of these oil filters, because they do not provide for appropriate separation of the fluid and result in the formation of large waste blocks that include a number of oil filters compressed with one another.
Accordingly, conventional oil filter disposal requires a number of specific and often expensive steps for proper disposal. Specifically, when oil filters are removed at a servicing site, such as an automobile repair shop or oil changing station, the individual oil filters are disposed of in select drums. These drums, once filed with oil filters, are then picked up periodically by a waste disposal company, whereafter they are individually compressed, by the waste disposal company, or are brought to an appropriate disposal facility at which point they are individually compressed. In particular, the individual compression involves taking each individual oil filter and crushing it to squeeze the fluid therefrom. These individual, crushed oil filters are then appropriately disposed of as set by regulatory standards. Alternatively, if the shop owners who are doing the oil filter changes, wish to independently crush the oil filters, they may do so prior to waste pick-up. This procedure, however, still will requires that each individual oil filter be crushed to maintain separability, and while it reduces the number of pick-ups which are necessary at a particular site, it will also make the individual disposal drum substantially heavy requiring a specialized, often more expensive drum disposal equipment.
As a result, there is a substantial need in the art to solve the unaddressed and unrecognized problem of cost effective fluid filter disposal in a way that effectively removes the waste fluid and maintains the filters in appropriate form for disposal.